Understand history, art, culture, and the sciences through inquiry and analysis.

Everything Under the Sun*

*Well...maybe not everything... but the Smithsonian Learning Lab puts the treasures of the
world's largest museum, education, and research complex within reach. The Lab is a free, interactive platform for discovering millions of authentic
digital resources, creating content with online tools, and sharing in the Smithsonian's expansive community of knowledge and learning.

Discover

What will you find in Smithsonian Learning Lab?

Resources

Millions of Smithsonian digital images, recordings, texts, and videos in history, art and culture, and the sciences

Collections

Thousands of examples of resources organized and structured for teaching and learning by educators and subject experts

Resources

Millions of Smithsonian digital images, recordings, texts, and videos in history, art and culture, and the sciences

Collections

Thousands of examples of resources organized and structured for teaching and learning by educators and subject experts

Who uses the Learning Lab?

In short... it's people like you. We created the Learning Lab so anyone can quickly discover and adapt authoritative subject-relevant resources.

With the Smithsonian Learning Lab, teachers can access high-quality resources and use the interactive tools on the site to create their own collections. For me, what's most inspiring is the ability to see those teacher-created collections and adapt them so that they fit my own students' needs and interests.

As a librarian, working with students from grades K-5, I access the wide range of museum resources in Learning Lab to find age-appropriate material. I use these resources to enhance lessons with inquiry-based learning strategies to help develop critical thinkers.

The Learning Lab helps our team inspire, educate and empower people through design beyond the walls of the museum. This dynamic tool facilitates collaboration with teachers and learners nationwide by leveraging content in our collections and exhibitions to share design stories.

The Learning Lab is a powerful teaching and learning tool that allows the Heinz History Center to maximize our digital collections and make an impact in classrooms, engaging students and teachers as we connect regional and national history.

BRIGHT IDEAS

To learn more about the Smithsonian Learning Lab and to read about strategies, approaches, new features, and more, subscribe to the Bright Ideas newsletter. We'll be sending out a new issue every few weeks.

Have a burning question for the Learning Lab team? Need help finding a resource or using one of the Lab’s tools and features? Just want to say "hello"? Take a minute to tune in to our live Q&A. Drop by anytime between 4 and 5!

Webinar archive: Find great new ready-to-use teaching resources from the National Museum of African American History and Culture that you can use to support skill building in historical thinking, contextualization, and perspective taking.

Create a Free Smithsonian Learning Lab Account

It's free and fun to become part of the safe and welcoming Smithsonian learning community. Not only can you save, create, and share your discoveries and creations, but you'll also get updates on new resources, collections, events, and publications.